


ocean currents

by cassandor



Series: beyond the beach [5]
Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: After Endor, F/M, There are Ewoks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-04
Updated: 2017-06-04
Packaged: 2018-11-09 00:17:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11092935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cassandor/pseuds/cassandor
Summary: here’s how it all ends.





	ocean currents

_this desire, this path, this journey, this life - became a search for you._

* * *

After war, comes peace. That’s what they were told. Yet the Empire is still very much alive. Splintered, dying, but still alive. But so is the New Republic. It rises from the ashes of the Empire, the blood of the Rebel Alliance thrumming in its veins. 

They fought for the war to end, and now they fight for the peace to begin.

Likewise, the Ewoks had begun rebuilding their own little part of the galaxy. Some of the Empire’s fingerprints would never be fully scrubbed away - like the remains of the Death Star hanging around Endor’s atmosphere - but they were doing their best. 

With the NR’s help, of course. That was how Jyn found herself still on Endor’s forest moon, a couple of months after the destruction of the Death Star, inspecting the wiring on the underside of a console in the bunker, now salvaged for their purposes. 

She was itching to be on the front lines, to nobody’s surprise. There were still Outer Rim worlds to sway, people to save, Imperials to be taken out. But the towering trees here had awoken a stillness inside of her, a stillness she hadn’t felt since that beach on Scarif, a wave of destruction rolling in as -

The wire shocks her and she jerks away, hitting her head off the table with a thud. “Ouch!” 

“You okay there, Jyn?” 

Another rebel - soldier? government agent? rehabilitation team member? what were they now, anyways? - peers over the table at her, a concerned look on her face. 

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she replies, rubbing her head with one hand as she grabbed the table for support with the other. She stands up, adding, “I think the issue is fixed now, it won’t take much longer-” 

“Give yourself a break, Erso. Here,” the girl - _Nytalia_  was her name, Jyn remembers - hands her a cup of caf.

“Thanks.”Jyn takes a sip, looking out the smashed window at the relief effort. Ewoks scurried back and forth, accompanied by a few ex-soldiers, between their village and the battlefield, collecting materials to help rebuild their homes. 

Then something catches her eye. She sets the mug on the table, caf splashing up the sides. “Is that-” she points, eyebrow raised. _A ship?_

Nytalia’s eyes follow Jyn’s finger. “Uhmmm…”  

There’s a buzz of activity on the other side of the room, around the communications console. 

“… requesting clearance.” 

Jyn’s head snaps around at the voice. She makes her way to their station. 

“I repeat. This - this is Major Cassian And-”

Her eyes go wide and she shoves aside the poor fellow at the controls, slamming her hand on the comm.

“Cassian?” she gasps. 

There’s a long stretch of silence, punctuated by her breathing into the microphone, and Jyn wonders if he heard her. Then: his reply. 

“Jyn?” 

* * *

“Give yourself a break, Erso.”

It’s Leia this timeand the bonfires of Endor are shining in her eyes. It’s the night after the Death Star was destroyed. 

Jyn gives her a quizzical look. 

“I know you want to fight. We share a lot in common, you know.” There’s a twitch of a smile on her lips. “But we need people to stay behind and help the Ewoks rebuild.”

“Not to sound ungrateful, Your High-”

“Drop the titles. The war is over and you’ve been in this since the beginning,” she winks. “And we’re friends, aren’t we?” 

Jyn smiles, the expression unfamiliar on her face. “Okay. _Leia_ , not to be rude, but why me?”

“Right, why the hot-headed rebel - don’t laugh, I get called that too - should stay behind with a bunch of newbies and retirees?” Jyn nods. “I want you to take a break. You haven’t caught one since the war began.”

 _Since we started the war,_  Jyn thinks. “Neither have you. And you just got married. Isn’t this your honeymoon, technically?”

Leia’s face softens. “But I haven’t suffered a fresh loss.” She knew, then. Cassian was a well known face in the Rebellion even _before_  Scarif. 

Jyn concedes, eventually, cracking a joke about how she’d keep the fledgling base lively with her antics. But another part whispered to her, the part born on Jedha, the part that always burned with hope - _if you stay put, he can find you_.

Apparently, he just had.

* * *

She doesn’t know what to say, really. She just stares.

His hair is longer, for one. He looks older -he _is_  older, she hasn’t seen him in almost a year - and there are new scars running down the side of his face, disappearing under his shirt.

She wants to ask where they came from. She wants to ask where he’s _been, for fark’s sake_ , _you realize how long you’ve been_ gone, Andor?

She want to ask what their next plan is. Stay here? Follow the New Republic to Chandrila, head out on a mission to the Outer Rim? 

She wants to tell him what’s happened: how Hoth had to be evacuated, how General Solo got frozen in carbonite, how the Princess strangled a Hutt to death - _he’d_ _appreciate_ that _story -_  how she felt when her father’s creation’s twin hung low above their heads, how she hoped and hoped and hoped they’d make it - she wanted to tell him how they survived. Because they did. She did. 

And so did he. 

Her head spins with a rush of emotions long-forgotten. It’d be ironic if she just fainted into his arms. That was where they had left off, hadn’t they? 

(there’s a sinking feeling in her gut. she’d have to tell him, someday. she will.) 

But instead, she shoves that all aside, stands in front of him, and says:

“Welcome home.” 

* * *

_and at last I found you, in the thing they call the heart._


End file.
